Ax's Friday Night 4E Campaign

The Maze of Shattered Souls

11

JUN/10

The Demon Wastes of the Shadowfell: a blasted land cursed for countless ages by the taint of ancient evil. A land of ash and rock, harsh and unforgiving, and its few mortal residents are equally harsh. The Ghaash’kala are charged by gods and primordials alike to guard the Labyrinthine center of the Wastes, preventing anyone from entering or leaving the Maze lest the taint of evil spread to the world beyond …

The party starts out on their quest to investigate the Maze of Shattered Souls. Even with the speed of their phantom steeds, it takes the party several days to cross the Demon Wastes and arrive at the only town known to exist this far in the wasteland: Festering Holt. While in the town, they gather information about Abernathy’s agents who had entered the Labyrinth and how best to survive those broken canyons. Their inquiries attract the attention of servants of Abernathy who unsuccessfully ambush the party.

The group then makes for the labyrinth. The labyrinth is a perilous network of canyons and caverns where volcanic eruptions, avalanches, earthquakes and mudslides happen with great frequency. Despite these dangers, the party successfully navigates to the center while avoiding the Ghaash’kala tribe who protect the Maze.

The Maze of Shattered Souls itself is an ancient structure in the center of the labyrinth. While entering, the group is ambushed by rakshasa’s that can only be members of Abernathy’s team. The rakshasas underestimate the ability of the heroes and are swiftly dealt with.

Entering the maze, the group deals with the temple’s own defenses and some “surprises” left for them by Abernathy’s team. After some tough fighting, they make it to the central chamber called the “Well of Souls”. It speaks to the ingenuity of Abernathy’s agent; a rakshasa sorcerer called Zathasram; that he was able to smuggle a Goristro demon into the heart of the Well. The gods and primordials themselves had forbidden such an action.

The resulting battle is fierce with the Goristro tearing into the party and Zathasram channeling the power of the Well to send endless waves of trapped souls to attack. Eventually, the trickery of Marketu enables Gorlock to get adjacent to Zathasram and the Goristro was felled by the spellcraft of Larae and the deadly arrows of Roland…the battle ends soon after.

Using their knowledge of the arcane arts, Larae and Marketu are able to find and retrieve the trapped soul of Raven. They take their leave and start back out of the labyrinth. Unfortunately, they run into a war band of the noble Ghaash’kala, protectors of the Maze. Despite doing their best to avoid combat, the party is forced to incapcitate the Ghaash’kala in order to leave the labyrinth. After a quick stop in Festering Holt for supplies, the party travels hard back to Regnum Inferi.

While resting from their journey, Merith puts the freed soul of the Raven into a new body. Since the Raven’s body was completely destroyed by Abernathy, this step is neccessary to bring him back into the mortal world.